WPPED Cream: 2014’s most creative work
WPP has announced the winners of the annual WPPED Cream Awards. Now in their eighth year, the awards recognise the best creative work produced by WPP companies around the world, across all marketing disciplines. Commenting on the winning entries, Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, said: “They speak far more eloquently of the talent that exists in WPP companies than any words or set of numbers. I’m intensely proud of it all and of those who created it.”

WPP makes it 111 countries with Mongolian acquisition
At one point it seemed an independent Scotland would become the 111th country in which WPP operates. As it turned out, it was Mongolia. Launched in partnership with TNS, Y&R Mongolia is the country’s first majority-owned international agency. The move follows Y&R taking a majority stake in the creative advertising and research agency of MCS Holding, one of Mongolia’s largest business conglomerates. Y&R Global CEO David Sable said: “The formation of Y&R Mongolia will make Y&R the most expansive network in Asia, with coverage across North, South and Southeast Asia, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.”

Corona retains top spot as Latin America’s most valuable brand
For the second consecutive year Mexican beer brand Corona led the BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Latin American Brands ranking, after a 21% increase in brand value from 2013. The BrandZ rankings, produced by Millward Brown Vermeer and commissioned by WPP, are the only valuations in the world that take into account the views of potential and current buyers of a brand, alongside financial data, market valuations, analyst reports and risk profiles. Eduardo Tomiya, Managing Director of Millward Brown Vermeer, said: “2014 was a very good year for consumer goods brands (9% growth) and retail brands (14% growth), which kept themselves highly relevant as consumers’ needs evolved.”

Global digital media platform to drive sustainable living
WPP has joined a coalition of some the world’s biggest companies, media partners and non-profits in launching a new global digital media platform to drive conversation and action on sustainability. The new platform, called Collectively, aims to make sustainable living “the new normal” and has been developed alongside WPP affiliate company VICE Media’s creative services division, VIRTUE.
NEW OFFERS

Investment in next generation digital studio
WPP has taken a significant minority stake in Los Angeles-based Indigenous Media, a new digital studio founded by award-winning film-makers Jon Avnet, Rodrigo Garcia and Jake Avnet, that produces high-quality scripted content for online platforms. WPP will contribute advertising expertise, allowing Indigenous Media to focus on creating content that will attract brand sponsorships and global distribution on multiple platforms.

WPP pulls further ahead in ad tech with AppNexus investment
WPP has agreed to invest $25 million in AppNexus, the platform that allows real-time buying and selling of digital advertising for marketers, publishers, content providers and media investment management companies. The deal also involves Xaxis contributing its publisher advertising server platform, Xaxis For Publishers, to AppNexus, adding greater value to the latter’s offering and enabling Xaxis to focus development resources on its core data technology and media products.

Partnership with leading schools of government
WPP’s Government & Public Sector Practice has announced partnerships with the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. WPP leaders will deliver an Executive Education course in Singapore in October 2014 and a Communications for Public Policy module at Oxford in December 2014. The WPP faculty will include Dr Michelle Harrison, CEO, Government & Public Sector Practice, Marco Rimini, CEO, Mindshare Worldwide, and Hari Ramanathan, Chief Strategy Officer, Y&R Asia.

Polestar launches in China
WPP Digital has taken a minority stake in Polestar, a new company that will provide integrated e-commerce solutions in China. Polestar, in conjunction with WPP companies, will work with local and international brands to establish and manage all aspects of their Chinese e-commerce operations, from marketing through to purchase, fulfilment and delivery, across multiple consumer platforms. The company will be led by its principal investors – founder Figo Yang, who will serve as CEO, and Allen Liu, who will be Chief Operating Officer.

Haworth Marketing + Media joins GroupM
GroupM has acquired 49% of Haworth Marketing + Media, a US media agency that manages investments for clients including Target, Ben & Jerry’s, Beats by Dr. Dre, Honeywell, DreamWorks Animation and The Oscars. Haworth was founded in 1970 and employs 140 people in Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

Brazilian search specialist acquired by JWT
JWT has taken a majority interest in Mídia 123 Serviços de Publicidade Via Internet (Blinks), a leading Brazilian search engine marketing agency. Founded in 2009, Blinks employs 81 people and is based in São Paulo.

Teein joins VML in China
VML has agreed to buy Teein, a full-service social media agency based in Shanghai. Matthew Godfrey, President of Y&R Asia, said: “We are delighted to welcome Teein into the Y&R family. To help our clients, it has long been our strategy to build the best, most extensive network in the region across VML and Y&R Advertising – which we have done. Teein is a perfect addition to our full complement of people, resources and tools.”

Kantar Health acquires Evidências in Brazil
Evidências, a leading Brazilian healthcare research company, has been bought by Kantar Health. Founded in 1998, the company employs 22 people and is based in Campinas, with an office in São Paulo.

Middle East launch for Ogilvy CommonHealth
Ogilvy & Mather has expanded its healthcare communications offering with the launch of Ogilvy CommonHealth Middle East & North Africa. Operating out of a new Dubai office and led by Karen Kamel, the new operation will service pharmaceutical, health and wellness clients across all marketing and communications disciplines in the region.

The Jupiter Drawing Room expands into Mauritius
South Africa-based The Jupiter Drawing Room has expanded into Mauritius through a partnership with local entrepreneurs. The deal establishes a new agency, The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners, which will be led by Aisha Allee, founder and Managing Director of Mauritius-based PR firm Blast Communications, and creative entrepreneurs Krishen Maurymoothoo and Fayaaz Lallmahomed.

Wunderman has established the Centre for Advanced Analytics in Singapore, a hub for sharing techniques for creating and analysing consumer insights. Gary S Laben, President of Wunderman’s Data & Insights division, said: “Creating a centralised hub for analytics resources will allow us to better coordinate and deploy resources, assets, knowledge, tools and techniques, and more quickly deploy state-of-the-art analytics capabilities to clients. It will allow collaboration on and development of new tools to ensure our analytics practice is state of the art in what is a rapidly advancing field.”

Neoworks joins Salmon
WPP Digital agency Salmon has acquired Neoworks, a leading e-commerce agency based in the UK. Neoworks employs 35 people and services clients including Ted Baker, ASICS, and T-Mobile.

Millward Brown has established Firefly Millward Brown, a qualitative research practice, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Rasha Metwali will lead the new operation.

Millward Brown has opened an office in Karachi, Pakistan, to help support local, regional and global clients working in the country. The new operation will be led by Noaman Asar, who will report to Prashant Kolleri, Managing Director, Millward Brown Middle East and North Africa.

KBM Group, part of the Wunderman network, has entered a global agreement with Provenir, a leading provider of real-time customer engagement technology, in order to enhance its IMPACT 360 Consumer Engagement Platform.

Washington, DC-based advertising agency RTC has rebranded as Wunderman in order to leverage the resources of its parent company and, more specifically, the Wunderman World Health offering. Jeff Ross, RTC President, said: “We made the move now to better position us to take advantage of the expanding health and wellness categories. Alignment with Wunderman jump-starts our ability to connect to Wunderman’s global resources and international geographic footprint.”
INSIGHTS

GroupM has released its This Year, Next Year: China Media Forecasts report, projecting measured media advertising spending in China this year to increase by 9.8% compared to 2013. The report also predicts an 11% hike in 2015 to RMB 525 billion. TV still dominates media advertising spending in China, equating to an estimated RMB 221 billion in 2014, or 47% of total expenditure.

Burson-Marsteller and CNBC have unveiled the Corporate Perception Indicator, a global survey of more than 25,000 members of the general public and more than 1,800 business executives in 25 markets, revealing attitudes towards the role played by corporations in society and their contribution to the economy. The views of the public in the developed economies of North America and Western Europe contrasted with those in emerging economies such as China and Brazil, particularly regarding the level of corporate influence over government, corporate stewardship of the environment and the role corporations play as engines of job creation and economic growth. In developed economies 52% of respondents had a favourable view of corporations overall, compared to 72% in emerging economies.

GroupM Interaction India has released the 2014-15 India Digital Playbook, a guide to help marketers manage the pace of digital innovation in India. The report outlines seven key trends that are anticipated to impact upon the digital media space over the coming year, providing opportunities as well as challenges for marketers and brands in the country.

Kantar Retail has launched its first-ever e-commerce industry benchmarking study for China, evaluating the digital performance of retailers and manufacturers in the country. The report suggests that many businesses are still not achieving their full digital potential and could make marked improvements to their online presence and offering.

The latest offering from Connected Life, TNS’s study of over 55,000 internet users worldwide, suggests that Apple’s iPhone 6 will face a huge challenge competing with Samsung and other large screen phone (“phablet”) producers. Apple, which has historically enjoyed a first-mover advantage, is playing catch-up in an established and increasingly populated market. Samsung currently enjoys over 66% share of the phablet market in Hong Kong and South Korea, as well as over 46% in the US and UK.

JWT has released Meet the New Modern Family, a report exploring how and why household make-up, interpersonal ties and family structures are changing around the world. The report examines ways in which marketers are presenting different notions of the family and looks at what these representations mean for brands.
NEW BUSINESS

Maxus has named Jonathan Adams as Chief Digital Officer for North America, Maxus London has appointed Jonathan Wilson and Clare Chapman as Managing Partners, and Maxus Finland has hired Miko Paassilta as Managing Director.

MEC

MEC has named Renato de Paula as Regional CEO for Latin America, Fernando Monedero has been appointed as Head of Digital for MEC Latin America, and MEC India has appointed Premnath Unnikrishnan as South Head – Digital.

MEDIACOM

MediaCom UK has appointed Dan Chapman as a Managing Partner and Head of Digital, and Graham Field has been named Head of Programmatic. Darragh Hardy has joined MediaCom as Chief Business Development Officer APAC.

Sarah Morris has been appointed Head of TNS Qualitative UK, Jo Storry has been named Head of TNS Qualitative China, and William O’Connor has become Head of TNS Qualitative Canada.

MILLWARD BROWN

Stephen DiMarco has been appointed as President, Millward Brown Digital, Doreen Wang has been named Global Head of BrandZ for Millward Brown and Robin Wood has become Millward Brown’s Chief Solutions and Marketing Officer.

OGILVY & MATHER

Christopher Graves and Stuart Smith have been promoted to Global Chair and CEO of Ogilvy PR respectively.

YOUNG & RUBICAM GROUP

Y&R has named Grant Theron as Executive Vice President, Strategic Production and Partnerships, and Dick de Lange as Chief Strategy Officer for its New York office.

Y&R Group Indonesia has appointed Matthew Collier as CEO, VML Qais has named Preethi Sanjeevi as Chief Marketing Officer, and Bruno Valette has become General Manager of KBM Group.

These Days Y&R Belgium has promoted Sylvie Versteylen to Managing Director and Christophe Mes to Chief Operating Officer. The agency has also named Pieter Helsen as Technical Experience Director, Sam Serrien as Innovation and Creative Technology Director and Vera Van Doninck as Talent and Marketing Director.

Nelson Freitas has been appointed as Wunderman New York’s first-ever Chief Strategy Officer and Dan Wadleigh has been named Chief Financial Officer.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION

COHN & WOLFE

Cohn & Wolfe was included in PR News’ Top Places to Work in PR list for the second consecutive year.

GROUPM:

MAXUS

Maxus Australia was named as one of the country’s top places to work by Australian business magazine BRW, and Maxus took away the Media Agency of the Year Award, nine Golds and the Grand Prix at the 2014 Emvies in Mumbai.

MEC

MEC won three gongs at the M&M Global Awards in London and a Gold at the Most Awards in South Africa, and MEC Manchester was named Media Agency of the Year by the Manchester Publicity Association.

MEC India won a Silver in the Integrated Media and Best Presentation category at the 2014 EMVIE Awards.

MEDIACOM

MediaCom won two Golds at the M&M Global Awards and BRW magazine recognised MediaCom Australia as one of the country’s top places to work in 2014.

GEOMETRY GLOBAL

Geometry Global’s Moscow office picked up seven wins at the CLIO Awards for its “Get Well Kit” campaign, adding to the 14 global accolades and 26 regional awards the campaign has already won this year.

JWT

JWT’s work for Shell was awarded the gong for Best Automotive Campaign by creamglobal.com and JWT Bangkok scooped two Golds and five Silvers at the Adman Awards 2014.

OGILVY & MATHER

Working Mother magazine named Ogilvy & Mather North America as one of the 2014 Best Companies for Working Mothers.

At the PM360 Trailblazer Awards in New York Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide won a Gold Initiative Award in the Corporate Campaign category and a Silver Initiative Award in the Payer Access Programme category.

Ogilvy & Mather Group Hong Kong picked up ten CLIO statues across the Print and Out of Home categories at the 55th annual CLIO Awards in New York.

SALMON

Salmon won two gongs at the Online Retail Awards 2014 and came second in the Elite Rankings in The Drum’s 2014 Digital Census.

YOUNG & RUBICAM GROUP

Wunderman Shanghai won two Golds at the 2014 China ROI Festival, VML won a Silver in the Direct category at the CLIO Awards and Native VML won Gold in the Digital Integrated Campaign category at the Loerie Awards.